Beginner's Luck: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

If you see a plucky kid who's never used your weapon of choice before, however, it's time to turn tail and run.

 

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

** Later subverted. While he had the advantage of a massively overpowered machine compared to his enemies early on, as Zeon threw superior machines at him he started having a ''lot'' more trouble despite new weapons and the required experience using them.

** Played with in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ]]''. Despite being Newtypes, none of the pilots can even ''walk'' properly on their first sortie. [[The Hero|Judeau]] managed to drive off his first enemy in his first sortie, mostly through confusion on his opponent's part and...well, luck.

* ''[[Lyrical Nanoha]]''. As a kid fumbling around with her staff for the first time, she destroys a monster within ''minutes'', she saves multiple universes multiple times at the age of ''nine'', completely shattering the learning curve in the process, and years later as a fully trained battlemage, she's not only a literal [[The Ace|ace]] (well, "[[Gratuitous English|A's]]") but has to have [[Power Limiter|limiter upon limiter]] attached to herself and her staff at all times so as not to [[God Mode|godmode]] her enemies to death in '''seconds'''.

** The in-story explanation for the limiters is that a single unit is not allowed to have that many high-level mages in it, for fear of mutiny.

* Like many anime before it, ''[[Bleach]]'''s the main character starts as a simple human who can see ghosts. Turns out he not only has enough raw power to break magic, but then manifests a [[BFS|Giant Sword of Doom]]. For the first few arcs, he continuously manages to not only gain powers and/or abilities that other people have to work centuries to gain IN DAYS, but then continues to show that he is better at it.

** He also has no talent whatsoever for performing hakudo spells or special moves though. While his spiritual pressure is tremendous, he's just as tremendously limited in its use. He only has one special move, and even his bankai is just a massive speed boost.

* Yuuri in ''[[Kyo Kara Maoh!|Kyo Kara Maoh]]'' commits this trope when he manages to defeat Wolfram in a sword-fight despite having no sword training at all. He then proceeds to defeat him using magic too, with no training or even knowledge of his own ability, even though everyone else he faces have a lifetime of training and effort. To be fair, though, he almost never uses magic outside of his [[Super Mode]], which comes complete with a [[Split Personality]] that ''does'' know the ins and outs of spellcraft very well.

* In ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'', Ash's very first matchup in the [[Tournament Arc|Indigo League]], he decided to use a Pokémon that has had no experience in battling before: his Krabby. Krabby proceeded to evolve into Kingler and swiftly gives Ash his first win in the tournament. [[Call Back|Brought up again]] in "''Hello Pummelo''", where Ash chooses another Pokémon he has never used before, his Tauros, in his lineup for the championship match.

 

 

* In Gordon Korman's ''Beware the Fish'', Bruno and Boots slipped a cold remedy created by school genius Elmer Drimsdale into the sports coach's energy drink. It reacted badly with the citric acid and mimicked intoxication, and the only way Bruno, Boots and Elmer could keep the coach from wandering over to the girls' school across the road was by agreeing to play poker for toothpicks with him. Elmer won all the toothpicks within the first half-hour, which Bruno termed "Beginner's luck."

 

 

== Tropes ==

** This seems somewhat justified after playing the sequel, as after seeing what Jehuty is capable of with a trained pilot in control, we realize exactly how little of the mecha's capabilities its first young pilot was able to make use of. It really was using only its most basic features, assisted by the AI; it wasn't just a handwave after all.

** Cage Midwell in ''Zone Of The Enders: the Fist of Mars'' similarly ends up fighting several battles when he ends up in control of a [[Super Prototype]]. In both cases, it's somewhat justified by the fact that the Orbital Frames in question also come equipped with powerful A.I.s who can help them in combat.

** However he does go completely insane after this.

* Gordon Freeman (of the ''[[Half-Life]]'' series). Who knew scientists knew how to operate firearms?

* Justified in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'', where, near at the end of the game, you discover that {{spoiler|you are Darth Revan with an almost destroyed memory, and thus your skills were there, you just had to awake them once again}}

* The [[Nasuverse]] has several examples. ''[[Fate/stay night|Fate Stay Night]]'' gives us Shirou, who's been admittedly training for 8 years so hard it could nearly kill him... except he does it ''wrong'' and therefore it was pointless. By the end of the route he's generally taking on Servants 1v1 and winning. Shiki in [[Tsukihime]] is even more ridiculous, killing the 1000 year old Nero Chaos and 800 year old Roa, both of whom were supposed to be unkillable. With a small pocket knife, the only weapon he has any proficiency for at all.

* In ''[[Tokimeki Memorial]] 2 Substories: Dancing Summer Vacation'', Kaori Yae manages to get a perfect score on her first try at ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]''. The justification given by the storyline is that she has an innate sense of rythmn, and is in top-shape physical condition due to being a sportswoman.

* ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' has an enemy called Tonberry. Tonberry's Karma attack does damage related to the number of enemies its target has killed. This is usually a [[One Hit KO]], but not if the character hasn't killed that many enemies but just survived on [[Leaked Experience]].

* Often happens in [[Poker]], since beginners almost always don't know anything about poker strategy and play as they like. So, they're a) hard to estimate and b) also hard to bluff. Of course, poker is still partly luck-based, so any beginner has a chance to beat the best poker players in the world. (If you're playing against a single opponent without a betting limit, simply betting all your chips immediately at the beginning of every hand - without even looking at your cards - will give you about a one in three chance to win a match against anyone.)

** There are some known strategies that are very good at beating beginning poker players. They don't work on experts, who know about them and what their flaws are, but techniques that good players use to get small advantages against each another generally work on the assumption that their opponent ''isn't'' an idiot and will react rationally to the information you reveal as you play. When playing against an actual idiot, they can be useless and even counterproductive (for example, there's no point in trying to bluff someone who never folds), but if you know your opponent is an idiot, you can use an anti-beginner strategy to take their chips rather quickly.

* Wilfrid May narrowly escaped being shot down by the Red Baron on what would be the latter's final flight because he was still a novice fighter pilot and Von Richthofen couldn't anticipate May's erratic movements.

* The above two examples fall under an old military Murphy's Law corollary: "Professional soldiers are predictable, but the world is full of amateurs."

[[Category:Luck Tropes]]

[[Category:Universal Tropes]]